194. Grandma's Advice

 

194

Grandma's Advice

This old English ditty, still sung in Oxfordshire (FSUT 74), is
widely known in America: in Nova Scotia (BSSNS 379), Massa-
chusetts (FSONE 243-5), New York (SCSM 375), Virginia (FSV

* F has here "and meet with a short guess him" ; H has "and count him
short to guessing." Shoemaker's Pennsylvania text has "all in a short
digression," which is perhaps the right reading. These variant readings
point to aural rather than visual transmission.

 

468 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

176), West Virginia (FSS 469), North Carolina (SCSM 374-5)»
Florida (FSF 363-4), Mississippi (JAFL xxxix 157-8), the Ozarks
(OFS I 383-4), Ohio (BSO 300-1), Indiana (BSI 243), and Iowa
(MAFLS XXIX 21-2). It is included in Mrs. Richardson's Ameri-
can Mountain Song and in Ford's Traditional Music of America.
It is sometimes called 'Little Johnny Green,' from the name of the
wooer that appears — or one of them. There are four texts and a
fragment in our Collection, but they are so closely alike that it
seems sufficient to give one of them. The texts are :

A 'My Grandma Lives on Yonder Little Green.' From the collection
of Miss Elizabeth Walker of Boone, Watauga county.

B 'My Grandmother Lived on Yonder Little Green.' From Mrs. Sut-
ton, reported probably in the early 1920s.

C 'Grandma's Advice.' Contributed by Jessie Hauser of Forsyth county
about 1923.

D 'My Grandma's Advice.' Secured by Jesse T. Carpenter from the
manuscript book of Mrs. Mary Martin Copley, Route 8, Durham. The
opening stanza only.

E 'Grandma's Advice.' Contributed by M. K. Carmichael, with the no-
tation that it was sung in Dillon county, South Carolina, in the latter
part of the nineteenth century.

The C text runs as follows :

1 My grandma lives on yonder little green,
As fine an old lady as ever was seen.
She often cautioned me with care

Of all false yoimg men to beware.
Timmy I timmy um timmy umpy ta
Of all false young men to beware.

2 'These false young men they'll flatter and deceive,
So, my love, you must not believe.

They'll flatter and they'll coax till you're in their snare,
Then away goes poor old grandma's care.
Timmy I timmy um timmy umpy ta
Away goes poor old grandma's care.'

3 The first came a-courting was little Johnny Green,
As fine a little fellow as ever was seen ;

But the words of my grandma rang in my head,
I could not hear one word that he said.
Timmy I timmy um timmy umpy ta
I could not hear one word that he said.

4 The next came a-courting was young Ellis Grove.
'Twas then we met with a joyous love.

With a joyous love, and I couldn't be afraid.
You'd better get married than to be an old maid.
Timmy I timmy um timmy umpy ta

 

OLDER BALLADS MOSTLY BRITISH 469

You'd better get married than to be an old maid.
More often the conclusion is as in the B text :

If the boys and the girls had all been afraid
Grandma herself would have died an old maid.

----

 

 

194
Grandma's Advice

 

'My Grandma Lives on Yonder Little Green.' Sung by Miss Elizabeth Walker.
Recorded as ms score at Boone, Watauga county, probably in 1936.

 

For melodic relationship cf. **TBmWV 85; SCSM 457; AMS 56; BSD
300-1 ; FSONE 243-5 (measures 2, 6, 10) ; OFS i 383, No. lOiA (measures
2,6) ; also 'Turkey in the Straw' (measures 2,6,10).

 

 

Scale: Hexatonic (4). plagal. Tonal center: a-flat. Structure: aa^aS (4,4,4).

 

•Grandma's Advice.' Sung by Miss Jessie Hauser. Recorded in Fo-^jh c^^^^^^^
about 1923. Other titles given are 'Timmy I, Timmy and My Grandma Lives
on Yonder Little Green.' ^^^

 

 

For melodic relationship cf. **WSSU 166-7; SCSM 457; and AMS 46,
especially the beginning; OFS i 383, No. lOiA; BSO 300 (measures 1-2. 5-6,
9-10) ; TBmWV 85 ; FSONE 244, the begmmng.
Scale: Hexatonic (4), plagal. Tonal Center: f. Structure: aa^aS (4,4,4).

 

'Grandma's Advice.' Sung by Miss Ruth Black. R^^^/^ed _ as m s score at
Piney Creek, Alleghany county, summer of 1921. This tune is closely related
to 194A. ^^g

 

For melodic relationship cf. **TBmWV 85 ; SCSM 457; AMS 46; FSONE
244 (measures 2,6,10); BSO 300 and OPS i 383, No. lOiA (measures 2,6).
Compare also WSSU 166.

Scale: Hexatonic (4), plagal. Tonal center: g. Structure: aba'^h'^sfih^ (2,2,2,
2,2,2) = aaia2 (4,4,4).